Odysseus

Not to be confused with the 1954 film Ulysses.

Odysseus was a legendary hero in Greek mythology, king of the island of Ithaca and the main protagonist of Homer’s epic, the “Odyssey.” The son of Laertes and Anticlea, Odysseus was well known among the Greeks as an eloquent speaker, an ingenious strategist, and a cunning trickster. One of the suitors of Helen, Odysseus was obliged to join the Trojan expedition – something he didn’t want to do, since he was happy alongside his wife, Penelope, and his newborn son, Telemachus (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.6–7). He played a crucial part during the Trojan War – both as a strategist and as a warrior – eventually coming up with the famous stratagem which decided the outcome of the conflict: the Trojan Horse. Afterward, he set sail for Ithaca, but, after blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus, he angered Poseidon, who obstructed his journey homeward (Odyssey 9–12). After numerous memorable adventures – the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Teiresias in the Underworld, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of Helios, Calypso and Ogygia – Odysseus finally managed to reach Ithaca, ten years after leaving Troy and twenty years after joining the Trojan expedition. There, with the help of Telemachus, Eumaeus, Philoetius, and Athena, he killed the Suitors of Penelope, including Antinous, and reclaimed his house and kingdom (Odyssey 22).

Who Was Odysseus in Greek Mythology?

Odysseus was a mortal Greek hero and the king of Ithaca, famous above all for his cunning. He is the central character of Homer’s “Odyssey” and one of the leading Greek commanders in the “Iliad,” and his ten-year struggle to get home from Troy is the most famous journey in Greek myth.

• Parents: Laertes of Ithaca and Anticlea, daughter of Autolycus, a man famed for theft and oaths (Odyssey 11.84–85, 19.394–398)
• Wife: Penelope; son: Telemachus, a newborn when Odysseus sailed for Troy
• Best known for: the Trojan Horse, the blinding of Polyphemus, and the slaughter of the Suitors
• Divine patron: Athena; divine enemy: Poseidon, who is angry over the blinding of his son Polyphemus (Odyssey 1.68–75)

Whose Son Was Odysseus?

Odysseus was the son of Laertes and Anticlea – he was not the son of Zeus, Athena, or any other god. Athena is his protector and patron goddess, not his mother, and the confusion comes from how closely she guides him throughout both epics. Homer has Telemachus say that Arcisius begot Laertes as his only son, Laertes begot Odysseus as his only son, and Odysseus begot Telemachus as his only son (Odyssey 16.117–120).

• His grandfather on his mother’s side was Autolycus, whom Apollodorus calls a son of Hermes (Library 1.9.16), which would make Odysseus a great-grandson of a god; Homer says only that Hermes gave Autolycus his skill (Odyssey 19.396–398)
• A later, less flattering tradition claims his real father was the trickster Sisyphus rather than Laertes: Sophocles’ Philoctetes (417) calls him “Sisyphus’ offspring, bought by Laertes”, and Ovid’s Ajax speaks of Ulysses as of the blood of Sisyphus (Metamorphoses 13.31–32)
• He had one sister, Ctimene, the youngest daughter of Laertes, who was married off to a man of Same (Odyssey 15.361–370); no brothers are named

Was Odysseus a God or a Mortal?

Odysseus was fully mortal and never became a god. His entire story depends on this: he ages, bleeds, grieves, and can die, and he famously turns down the one chance he is offered to escape mortality.

• Calypso offers him immortality on Ogygia, and he refuses in order to return to Penelope (Odyssey 5.135–136, 5.203–224, 7.255–258)
• He is helped by the gods but has no divine powers of his own, only intelligence, endurance, and skill
• After his death, according to the ancient summary of the lost epic “Telegony,” Circe made Telegonus, Penelope and Telemachus immortal, but Odysseus himself is already gone; Apollodorus says that she sent Telegonus and Penelope to the Isles of the Blessed (Epitome 7.37)

Where Was Odysseus From?

Odysseus was Greek, not Trojan, and he came from Ithaca, a small island off the western coast of Greece. He fought on the Greek side throughout the Trojan War and ruled Ithaca together with the surrounding islands.

• In the Iliad his people are the Cephallenians, who hold Ithaca, Neritum, Crocyleia, Aegilips, Zacynthus, Samos and the mainland opposite (2.631–637); the Odyssey names the Suitors’ homelands as Dulichium, Same, Zacynthus and Ithaca (16.245–253)
• He belongs to the Achaeans – the name Homer uses for the Greeks of the heroic age
• Ithaca is a real island in the Ionian Sea and still bears the name today

Was Odysseus a Real Person?

There is no historical evidence that Odysseus existed: he is a mythological figure, not a documented king. The world around him, however, was partly real, which is why the question keeps being asked.

• Troy was a genuine Bronze Age city in northwest Anatolia, excavated since the nineteenth century
• Ithaca is a real island, but nothing independent of the poems ties it to a king named Odysseus
• No inscription, record, or artefact names Odysseus, and Homer’s epics were composed centuries after the supposed events

Odysseus or Ulysses: What Is His Roman Name?

Ulysses is simply the Roman name for Odysseus – the same character under a Latin form of the name. The Greek Odysseus became Ulixes in Latin, which entered English as Ulysses.

• Roman writers such as Virgil and Ovid use Ulixes or Ulysses, while Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides use Odysseus
• The Romans, who traced their ancestry to Trojan refugees, generally portray him as a deceitful villain rather than a hero: Virgil’s Aeneid calls him “wily Ulysses” and “the contriver of crimes” (2.90, 2.164) and has Laocoon warn that the Horse hides some trick of his (2.43–44)
• English translations vary: older ones often say Ulysses, modern ones usually keep Odysseus

Odysseus Before the Trojan War

Odysseus’ Family

Odysseus was the only son of Laertes of Ithaca, listed by Apollodorus among the Argonauts (Library 1.9.16), and Anticlea, the daughter of Autolycus (Odyssey 11.84–85). Now, this Autolycus, Odysseus’ grandfather, was a son of Hermes according to Apollodorus (Library 1.9.16) and was so skillful a thief that, in Homer’s words, he surpassed all men in thieving and in oaths, a gift of Hermes (Odyssey 19.394–398). Ovid adds that he delighted in making white of black and black of white (Metamorphoses 11.313–315). However, later authors seem to have been uneasy with a genealogy which makes the cunning Odysseus a relative of a thief only on his mother’s side, and they spread the rumor that his father wasn’t Laertes but the master-trickster Sisyphus, who had been with Anticlea before she married. The rumor is already used as an insult in Sophocles (Ajax 189–190, Philoctetes 417).

What Does the Name Odysseus Mean?

Homer says that Autolycus gave Odysseus his name. When Eurycleia laid the newborn child on Autolycus’ knees, he said, “Inasmuch as I am come hither as one that has been angered with many, both men and women over the fruitful earth, therefore let the name by which the child is named be Odysseus” (Odyssey 19.399–409). By this etymology, Odysseus comes from odussesthai, “to be wrought against, to be at odds with someone, to hate.”

Odysseus had no last name, because ancient Greeks did not use family surnames. Instead he is identified by his father and his kingdom: he is called Odysseus, son of Laertes, or Odysseus of Ithaca, and in Greek his name is written Οδυσσεύς (Odysseus), which the Romans turned into Ulixes and then Ulysses (the Latin form is used in Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses).

Odysseus’ Scar

Years later, as a young man visiting his grandfather, Odysseus went to Mount Parnassus and joined the sons of Autolycus, his uncles, on a boar hunt. Odysseus struck the boar and killed it as it charged him, but the boar’s tusk tore his leg above the knee, and the wound left a deep scar. The sons of Autolycus bound the wound skilfully and stopped the blood with a charm (Odyssey 19.428–466). The scar later gives him away to Eurycleia in his own house.

A Suitor of Helen

Odysseus was one of the suitors of Helen, the daughter of Leda and Zeus, whom King Tyndareus of Sparta raised as his own (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7–8). However, he came with little hope: the Hesiodic “Catalogue of Women” says that he sent no gifts at all, because he knew in his heart that Menelaus, the richest of the Achaeans, would win, and Apollodorus says that he was interested in Helen’s cousin Penelope, the daughter of Tyndareus’ brother Icarius (Library 3.10.6, 3.10.9).

With or without Odysseus, the suitors were just too many to please, and Tyndareus justifiably feared an outbreak of violence regardless of his final choice. Fortunately, Odysseus thought up an excellent little solution. In exchange for some help from Tyndareus regarding the hand of Penelope, Odysseus advised him to make all the suitors swear an oath to defend the chosen bridegroom against anyone who wronged him over his marriage (Library 3.10.9). This is the Oath of Tyndareus.

And so, when Menelaus was chosen, the suitors took the oath and left; and Tyndareus kept his promise by asking Icarius to give Penelope to Odysseus (Library 3.10.9). In another version, Pausanias says that Icarius set a foot-race for the suitors, which Odysseus won (3.12.2).

Palamedes’ Ploy

After marrying Penelope, Odysseus took her to Ithaca where the couple lived a happy life, made even happier after the birth of their only son, Telemachus. However, while the boy was still a baby, Helen was abducted by Prince Paris of Troy. Calling upon the oath sworn by Helen’s suitors, Menelaus summoned all of them to help him in his quest to bring her back. Ironically – since he had been the one to propose the oath in the first place – Odysseus did not want to join the expedition. Hyginus says that an oracle had told him that if he went to Troy he would return in the twentieth year, alone, having lost his companions, and in poverty (Fabulae 95); in Homer, Halitherses says the same thing, that Odysseus would come home in the twentieth year, with all his comrades lost and unrecognized, and claims to have said so when Odysseus sailed (Odyssey 2.171–176). So Odysseus pretended to be mad. According to Hyginus, he put on a felt cap and yoked a horse and an ox to a plow. Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, saw through the pretence and laid the infant Telemachus in front of the plow (Hyginus); in Apollodorus he snatched the child from Penelope’s bosom and drew his sword as if to kill him. Odysseus stopped at once, which showed he was sane, and he went to the war (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.7). Odysseus never forgave Palamedes and spent many an hour planning his revenge.

Why Did Odysseus Go to Troy?

Odysseus went to Troy because he was bound by the Oath of Tyndareus, which he himself had invented: every suitor of Helen had sworn to defend her chosen husband if anyone ever took her away. When Paris carried Helen off to Troy, Menelaus invoked that oath, and Odysseus had no lawful way to refuse.

• He did not want to go, and tried to escape the summons by pretending to be insane (Epitome 3.7)
• Palamedes exposed the pretence by placing the infant Telemachus in the path of his plow
• A prophecy, which Hyginus calls an oracle (Fabulae 95) and Homer attributes to the seer Halitherses (Odyssey 2.171–176), foretold that the war would cost him twenty years and all his companions

How Did Odysseus Become King of Ithaca?

Homer does not say how Odysseus became king of Ithaca; he simply rules Ithaca and the neighbouring islands before the Trojan War, and is the king of the Odyssey. The kingdom he fights to reclaim is the one he already held.

• Laertes, his father, is still alive but no longer comes to the city; he lives on a country farm in grief and old age (Odyssey 1.189–193, 11.187–196)
• During the twenty-year absence the Suitors compete for Penelope, and Telemachus says that some other Achaean might become king if he is not (Odyssey 1.386–404)
• Telemachus is his son and heir, but a young man who cannot yet hold the kingdom on his own while his father is missing

How Old Was Odysseus When He Left for Troy?

Homer never gives Odysseus an age, but the story implies he was a young man in his twenties or early thirties when he sailed. Telemachus was a newborn at the time and twenty years old when his father returned, which fixes the length of the absence even if it does not fix the birth date.

• He was old enough to be married, a father, and an established king before the war began
• Ten years of war and ten years of wandering would place him in his forties or fifties on his return; Athena makes him look old in disguise (Odyssey 13.429–438)
• Laertes is still alive when Odysseus comes home, though worn down by grief and old age (Odyssey 24.226–231)

Odysseus During the Trojan War

It would be an understatement to say that the successful recruitment of Odysseus was a crucial event, one that would eventually decide the outcome of the Trojan War perhaps more than any other: without Odysseus, the Greeks may have never sacked Troy.

Recruiting Achilles

As a matter of fact, his recruitment started paying dividends even before the Greeks reached Troy. Namely, Calchas declared that Troy could not be taken without Achilles, and Achilles’ mother Thetis, foreseeing that he was fated to die if he went to the war, disguised him in women’s clothes and entrusted him to King Lycomedes of Scyros (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8). Odysseus, seeking him out at Lycomedes’ court, discovered him by the blast of a trumpet (Library 3.13.8). Hyginus tells it more fully: Odysseus placed women’s gifts, together with a shield and spear, in the king’s hall and then had a trumpeter sound and a clash of arms be heard; Achilles, thinking an enemy was at hand, tore off the women’s clothes and seized the shield and spear (Fabulae 96). Ovid’s Odysseus also claims credit for bringing Achilles to Troy (Metamorphoses 13.162–170).

Odysseus’ Role in the Trojan War

From a scene on the walls of Troy in Homer’s “Iliad,” we know that Odysseus was shorter by a head than Agamemnon but broader in his chest and shoulders, as Priam observes (3.191–198). Helen names him as the son of Laertes who “knoweth all manner of craft and cunning devices.” Then the elder Antenor recalls the day Odysseus came to Troy as an envoy: when he stood with his staff still, “thou wouldest have deemed him a churlish man and naught but a fool. But whenso he uttered his great voice from his chest, and words like snowflakes on a winter’s day, then could no mortal man beside vie with Odysseus” (Iliad 3.200–224).

Unsurprisingly, Odysseus’ main role during the Trojan war was one of a crafty strategist and a wise advisor. He was the one who prevented the bulk of the Greek army from sailing home after Agamemnon’s plan to test their determination by proposing to leave had backfired, rallying the chiefs and silencing Thersites (Iliad 2.182–335). Odysseus also spoke first in the embassy sent to appease Achilles who, enraged at what he had perceived as unfair treatment from Agamemnon, had withdrawn from the fighting; Ajax and Phoenix went with him (Iliad 9.185–306).

However, this doesn’t mean that Odysseus didn’t prove his worth as a warrior as well. Together with Diomedes, he captured and killed the Trojan spy Dolon and killed the Thracian king Rhesus during a dangerous night-raid on the Trojan camp (Iliad 10.272–579). According to Apollodorus, when Calchas said that the Trojan seer Helenus knew the oracles that protected the city, Odysseus waylaid and captured him (Epitome 5.9). The conditions Helenus gave for the fall of Troy included the recruitment of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus and the wounded archer Philoctetes, who held Heracles’ bow and arrows. Apollodorus sends Odysseus and Phoenix to Scyros to bring Neoptolemus (Epitome 5.11), and Odysseus is the central figure in the hunt for Philoctetes in Sophocles’ Philoctetes.

What Did Odysseus Look Like?

Odysseus was short and powerfully built: Homer describes him as a head shorter than Agamemnon but broader across the chest and shoulders (Iliad 3.193–194). When Athena restores his looks in the Odyssey, his hair falls in curls like the hyacinth flower and his cheeks and beard are dark (Odyssey 6.230–231, 16.175–176). His appearance was unimpressive, which is part of the point – strangers underestimate him until he speaks.

• Antenor says that when Odysseus and Menelaus sat together at Troy, Odysseus was the more majestic, though Menelaus was the taller when they stood (Iliad 3.209–211)
• Athena repeatedly alters his looks in the Odyssey, making him taller and more radiant before the Phaeacians (8.18–23) or shrivelled and old when he is a beggar (13.429–438)
• His one fixed physical mark is the boar-hunt scar on his leg, the detail by which Eurycleia recognises him (Odyssey 19.386–475)

How Many Ships and Men Did Odysseus Lead?

Odysseus led twelve ships to Troy, according to Homer’s Catalogue of Ships (Iliad 2.631–637), and left Troy with the same twelve (Odyssey 9.159–160). Homer gives no crew size for them, but the contingent was a modest force beside the fleets of Agamemnon, who brought a hundred ships, or Nestor, who brought ninety (Iliad 2.576, 2.602).

• His men were Cephallenians, drawn from Ithaca and the neighbouring islands he ruled
• Six men from each of the twelve ships died fighting the Cicones, before any monster was met (Odyssey 9.60–61)
• Eleven ships were destroyed by the Laestrygonians (10.121–132), and the last was struck by Zeus’ thunderbolt after the cattle of Helios (12.403–419)

Odysseus and The Trojan Horse

Odysseus’ main and most memorable contribution to the successful conclusion of the Trojan War was the devising of the stratagem by which, after a decade-long war, the Greeks finally managed to enter Troy. Apollodorus says that Odysseus invented the Wooden Horse and suggested it to the builder Epeius, and that Odysseus persuaded the bravest Greeks to hide inside it and was appointed their leader (Epitome 5.14–15). Homer knows the story from several angles: Demodocus sings of Odysseus leading the Horse up to the citadel, full of men (Odyssey 8.492–520); Menelaus tells how Helen walked round the Horse imitating the voices of the wives of the men inside, and how Odysseus held the men back, gripping Anticlus’ mouth, until she went away (Odyssey 4.271–289); and in the Underworld Odysseus recalls that it was left to him to decide when to open the door of the ambush and when to close it, while the other leaders trembled and wiped away tears (Odyssey 11.523–532). In Virgil’s later version the Trojans drag the Horse into the city, Sinon opens it at night, the fleet returns from Tenedos, and “dire Ulysses” is among the men who glide down the rope (Aeneid 2.234–267). Apollodorus has Sinon light a beacon to guide the fleet back (Epitome 5.19).

Odysseus’ Cruelty

Odysseus was sometimes harsh towards his enemies, which is why, as much as he was admired by the Greeks, he was cast as a villain by the Romans, who knew him as Ulysses and considered themselves descendants of the Trojans (Virgil, Aeneid 2.90, 2.164). The deed most often held against him happened just after Troy had fallen. In Euripides’ Trojan Women the herald Talthybius tells Andromache that Odysseus spoke before the assembled Greeks and persuaded them to kill Astyanax, Hector’s little boy, rather than let him grow up (Trojan Women 719–725). The ancient summary of the lost epic “Sack of Ilion” goes further and says that Odysseus himself killed Astyanax.

In addition, Odysseus never forgot his grudge against Palamedes. According to Apollodorus, Odysseus forced a Phrygian prisoner to write a letter, supposedly from Priam to Palamedes, and buried gold in Palamedes’ quarters; Agamemnon found the letter and the gold and handed Palamedes over to the army to be stoned as a traitor (Epitome 3.8). A later account, in the second book of Dictys of Crete’s “Journal of the Trojan War,” says that Odysseus and Diomedes fooled Palamedes into descending a well under the pretence that a treasure lay hidden inside, and then buried him under stones thrown down on top of him.

Did Odysseus Kill a Baby?

In several ancient traditions, yes: the child was Astyanax, the little son of Hector and Andromache, thrown from the walls of Troy after the city fell. The sources disagree on who actually did it. Euripides makes Odysseus the man who persuaded the Greeks to kill him.

• The reasoning given in Euripides is dynastic, not personal: the Greeks would not let so brave a father’s son be reared (Trojan Women 719–725)
• Apollodorus says only that “they” threw him from the battlements (Epitome 5.23); the ancient summaries of the lost epics name Odysseus (“Sack of Ilion”) or Neoptolemus (“Little Iliad”), and Pausanias, describing Polygnotus’ painting at Delphi, says that Lesches made Neoptolemus kill the child of his own accord, not by a decree of the Greeks (10.25.9)
• This episode does not appear in the “Iliad” or the “Odyssey” – it comes from the lost epic cycle and from tragedies such as Euripides’ “The Trojan Women” and, in Latin, Ovid (Metamorphoses 13.415–417)

The Odyssey: Returning Home to Ithaca

After the Trojan War, Odysseus embarked on a ten-year journey to reach his home, Ithaca; his adventures are recounted – mostly in flashbacks told by Odysseus himself to the Phaeacians (Odyssey 9–12) – in Homer’s monumental epic “Odyssey.” Chronologically, this is the order in which they happen.

Why Was Odysseus Cursed by the Gods?

Odysseus was cursed because he blinded Polyphemus and then boasted about it, giving the Cyclops his real name. Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon that Odysseus might never reach home, or, if it was fated, that he should come late, in distress, in a stranger’s ship, and find trouble in his house (Odyssey 9.528–535). That prayer – not a general divine hatred – is what turns a short voyage into a ten-year ordeal.

• Poseidon cannot kill him outright, because fate has decreed that Odysseus will reach home; he can only delay and batter him (Odyssey 1.68–79, 5.286–290)
• Zeus does not curse Odysseus but does destroy his last ship, punishing the crew for killing the cattle of Helios (Odyssey 12.377–388, 12.415–419)
• Athena protects him on Ithaca and in the Phaeacian land, but she does not oppose her uncle Poseidon at sea until the end (Odyssey 6.329–331); the curse costs Odysseus his ships and companions, though not his life

Maron and the Cicones

Odysseus left Troy with twelve ships – as many as he had sailed with a decade before. Soon after, a wind drives the ships to Ismarus, the city of the Cicones, who lived on the coast of Thrace. Odysseus and his men sack the city and kill the men, but spare Maron, a priest of Apollo, with his wife and child. In gratitude, the priest gives Odysseus splendid gifts, including twelve jars of sweet wine. Odysseus urges a swift departure, but his men stay on the shore to feast, giving the Cicones just enough time to bring reinforcements from inland and drive them back to their ships, killing six men out of each of the twelve ships in the process (Odyssey 9.39–66, 9.196–211).

The Lotus-Eaters

After some time, Odysseus reaches the land of the Lotus-Eaters. He sends two men and a herald to scout the area, but none of them returns to the ships in due time. As Odysseus finds out, the reason for this is not some cruel act by the Lotus-Eaters, but the taste of their lotus, “so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-Eaters without thinking further of their homecoming.” Odysseus has to drag his scouts back to the ships by force, weeping, and bind them under the benches, after which the journey to Ithaca goes on (Odyssey 9.82–104).

Odysseus and Polyphemus

Next, Odysseus’ ships reach the land of the Cyclopes, a race of lawless one-eyed giants who keep flocks. Odysseus is curious to see what kind of man lives there, and he and twelve chosen companions enter a cave full of cheeses and lambs. The cave belongs to the Cyclops Polyphemus, who, after blocking the entrance with a giant boulder, starts eating the men, two at a time. The monster devours six of Odysseus’ men over three meals before the hero devises a life-saving trick. After introducing himself as Outis – i.e., “Nobody” – he gives Polyphemus Maron’s wine and gets him so drunk that he is able to pierce his eye with a heated stake of olive wood. “Nobody is slaying me by guile or by force,” cries out Polyphemus to the other Cyclopes, who hear this and leave him alone, as they think nothing is wrong (Odyssey 9.105–412).

The next morning, Odysseus and his six surviving men escape from Polyphemus’ cave by clinging under the bellies of his sheep, as the Cyclops lets them out to pasture (Odyssey 9.424–461). Before they sail away from the island, however, Odysseus makes the mistake of revealing his true name to Polyphemus, who then asks his father, the sea-god Poseidon, to avenge him; this will have a major impact on the hero’s journey, as it will be Poseidon’s anger which will keep Odysseus away from his beloved Ithaca for the next ten years (Odyssey 9.502–535).

Odysseus and Aeolus

The ships then reach the floating island of Aeolus, the keeper of the winds appointed by Zeus, who welcomes them warmly and entertains Odysseus for a month. At the end of it, so as to aid Odysseus on his journey, Aeolus binds all the blustering winds in a bag made from the hide of a nine-year-old ox and ties it in the ship with a silver cord, leaving only the West Wind free to blow. For nine days the West Wind steers the ships all the way to Ithaca; on the tenth day they see men tending the beacon fires on the shore. At that moment Odysseus falls asleep. Thinking the bag contains gold and silver, his men open it, releasing the winds at once. The ships are violently blown back to the island of Aeolus, where the god, concluding that Odysseus is hated by the gods, refuses to help him again (Odyssey 10.1–76).

The Laestrygonians

After six days of rowing in a dead calm, on the seventh day Odysseus reaches Telepylus, the city of the Laestrygonians, a tribe of man-eating giants ruled by Antiphates. Most of his ships enter a narrow harbor surrounded by cliffs, but Odysseus keeps his own ship outside. This small decision saves his life.

When the Laestrygonians attack, they throw massive boulders from the cliffs, smash eleven of Odysseus’ twelve ships, and spear the drowning men like fish. Odysseus cuts his own mooring rope and his ship is the only one that manages to escape (Odyssey 10.77–132). After this disaster, he is no longer the leader of a fleet, but the captain of one surviving ship.

Odysseus, Circe and Eurylochus

Odysseus’ ship next reaches Aeaea, an island ruled by the sorceress Circe, a daughter of Helios. Odysseus divides his men into two groups, and by lot Eurylochus leads one scouting party of twenty-two men inland. The men find Circe’s house, but Eurylochus suspects a trap and stays outside (Odyssey 10.133–243).

His caution saves him. Circe gives the other men a drugged potion and strikes them with her wand, turning them into swine, though their minds stay unchanged. Eurylochus runs back to warn Odysseus, who goes to Circe’s house with help from Hermes, who gives him the magical herb moly. Odysseus resists her magic, threatens her with his sword, and forces her to swear an oath and restore his men (Odyssey 10.244–399).

After this, Odysseus and his crew remain on Aeaea for one year, during which Odysseus shares Circe’s bed. Hesiod names three sons she bore to him: Agrius, Latinus and Telegonus (Theogony 1011–1016). When his men remind him of home, Circe tells him that he must first go down to the house of Hades and seek advice from the prophet Teiresias (Odyssey 10.467–495).

Who Was Odysseus’ Right-Hand Man?

On the voyage home, Odysseus’ second-in-command is Eurylochus, a kinsman of his by marriage (Odyssey 10.441) and the man he trusts with half the crew. Eurylochus is a deeply ambiguous deputy: his caution saves him from Circe’s magic, but his persuasion later destroys the entire crew.

• He leads the scouting party on Aeaea and is the only man who refuses to enter Circe’s house
• He openly challenges Odysseus more than once, accusing him of recklessness in the Cyclops’ cave and refusing to follow him to Circe’s house (Odyssey 10.429–437) and urging the crew to land on Thrinacia (12.277–294)
• He talks the starving crew into killing the cattle of Helios, the mistake that kills them all (Odyssey 12.339–352)
• During the Trojan War, Odysseus’ closest comrade is a different man entirely: Diomedes, his partner in the night raid on the Trojan camp (Iliad 10)

The Underworld and Teiresias

At the end of the year, Circe counsels Odysseus to go down to Hades and seek advice from the seer Teiresias before continuing his journey. Odysseus does so, sailing to the edge of Oceanus and digging a pit, into which he pours a libation of honey and milk, wine and water, sprinkles barley, and lets the blood of sacrificed sheep run so that the spirits of the dead can speak (Odyssey 11.1–50).

Teiresias warns Odysseus that Poseidon is still angry because of the blinding of Polyphemus. He also warns him about the sacred cattle of Helios on Thrinacia: if the crew harms them, the ship will be destroyed and the men will die, and Odysseus will return late, in a stranger’s ship, to find trouble in his house. After killing the Suitors, Teiresias adds, Odysseus must carry an oar inland until he meets men who do not know the sea, plant it, and sacrifice a ram, a bull and a boar to Poseidon; and death will come to him “from the sea” in gentle old age (Odyssey 11.90–137).

In the Underworld, Odysseus also encounters many famous dead people, including the unburied Elpenor, Agamemnon, Achilles, Ajax and Heracles, and the spirit of his mother Anticlea, who tells him of the suffering in Ithaca and of Penelope’s difficult position among the Suitors; she died of longing for him (Odyssey 11.51–224).

Odysseus and the Sirens

First, Odysseus passes by the island of the Sirens who – as he is told by Circe – enchant all who come near them through the luring sound of their song. However, Odysseus stuffs his crew’s ears with beeswax and has them bind him tightly to the mast, with orders not to release him however much he begs, so that he can not only escape unharmed but also hear the beautiful Sirens’ song (Odyssey 12.39–54, 12.158–200).

Scylla and Charybdis

Then Odysseus’ ship must pass through a narrow strait between the whirlpool Charybdis and the six-headed monster Scylla. Circe has warned Odysseus that Charybdis can swallow the whole ship, while Scylla will seize six of the men, one in each mouth (Odyssey 12.73–126).

Odysseus chooses to sail closer to Scylla, accepting a smaller loss rather than the destruction of everyone. He does not tell his men about Scylla, for fear they would panic, and arms himself in vain. As the crew watches Charybdis in terror, Scylla strikes from her cave and snatches six of Odysseus’ men, who cry out his name as they are eaten; he later says it was the most pitiful sight he saw on all his journeys (Odyssey 12.201–259).

The Cattle of Helios

Next, the crew reaches the island of Thrinacia, where Odysseus, remembering Circe’s and Teiresias’ warnings, cautions his shipmates not to eat the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. At first, the men obey. However, the South Wind blows for a month and traps them on the island, and their supplies begin to run out (Odyssey 12.260–338).

While Odysseus is away praying and falls asleep, Eurylochus persuades the starving crew to kill the cattle. He argues that dying quickly at sea would be better than slowly wasting away from hunger. The men agree, even though they had been warned clearly not to touch the animals, and they feast for six days (Odyssey 12.339–396).

Helios, enraged, demands punishment from Zeus and threatens to take his light down to Hades. Zeus promises to smash the ship, and when it puts to sea he sends a violent storm and strikes it with a thunderbolt. All of Odysseus’ shipmates die, and Odysseus alone survives, clinging to the keel and mast; he drifts back to Charybdis and then for nine days to Ogygia (Odyssey 12.397–453).

Odysseus, Calypso and Ogygia

The sea carries Odysseus to Ogygia, the remote island of the nymph Calypso. Calypso falls in love with him and keeps him there for seven years (Odyssey 7.259–260). She offers him comfort, care, and even immortality if he will stay with her as her husband (Odyssey 5.135–136).

Odysseus refuses to forget Ithaca. Although Ogygia is beautiful, he spends his days weeping on the shore, longing for his home (Odyssey 5.151–158). Finally, Athena appeals to Zeus, and Zeus sends Hermes to order Calypso to release him (Odyssey 5.1–147). Hesiod names Nausithous and Nausinous as sons she bore to Odysseus (Theogony 1017–1018).

Calypso obeys the command, though unwillingly. She helps Odysseus build a raft and gives him food, wine, water, and clothing for the journey. After eighteen days at sea, Odysseus faces one more storm from Poseidon before reaching the Phaeacians (Odyssey 5.262–381).

The Phaeacians

Odysseus then reaches Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians. There, he is helped by the king’s daughter Nausicaa and welcomed by King Alcinous and Queen Arete. During a feast, the blind bard Demodocus sings of the Trojan War, moving Odysseus to tears (Odyssey 6–8).

Odysseus then reveals his identity and recounts his long journey (Odyssey 9–12). The Phaeacians honor him as a guest, load him with gifts and provide him with a ship. Their sailors carry the exhausted hero back to Ithaca while he sleeps (Odyssey 13.70–125). After twenty years of warring and wandering, Odysseus is finally home.

Odysseus’ Final Trials Before Ithaca

The last trials of Odysseus are not monsters but temptation, shipwreck, and the risk of being welcomed too warmly. After the loss of his ship he faces three final obstacles, and he must pass all of them alone. (They are told above in order; here they are gathered.)

• Calypso and Ogygia: seven years of comfort and an offer of immortality, which he refuses so that his homecoming remains possible
• Poseidon’s last storm: his raft is smashed, and he survives only with the veil of the sea goddess Leucothea and two days and nights in the open water (Odyssey 5.291–493)
• The Phaeacians: a court so hospitable that Alcinous hints he would give Odysseus his daughter, but Odysseus tells his story, is honoured, and asks to be sent home (Odyssey 7.311–316)

Odysseus back in Ithaca

Odysseus reaches Ithaca at dawn, sound asleep. Not wanting to wake him, the Phaeacian sailors lay him down on the shore with his gifts and leave. Odysseus wakes up confused, because Athena has hidden the island in mist, but she appears to him and, after revealing to him where he is, disguises him as an elderly beggar – both for his safety and so that he can learn better what had happened during his absence (Odyssey 13.116–440).

Odysseus and Eumaeus

Pretending to be a Cretan who has news of Odysseus, the disguised hero finds his way to the hut of one of his most faithful servants, the swineherd Eumaeus. Eumaeus does not recognize him, but he welcomes him warmly, gives him food and shelter, and speaks with love and grief for his absent master (Odyssey 14).

The hut of Eumaeus becomes a safe place for Odysseus on Ithaca. Away from the palace and the Suitors, he can learn what has happened during his absence and prepare for his return. Eumaeus’ loyalty stands in sharp contrast to the disloyal servants who have joined the Suitors.

Odysseus and Telemachus

Meanwhile, Telemachus has sailed home from Sparta and, after evading an ambush set by the Suitors of Penelope, goes straight to Eumaeus’ hut. There, Athena touches Odysseus and restores his own appearance, and father and son are finally reunited – twenty years after being separated by the Trojan War and the ploy of Palamedes (Odyssey 15–16).

Odysseus and Telemachus then begin planning the destruction of the Suitors. Their reunion is one of the turning points of the Odyssey, because the broken royal house of Ithaca starts to come together again.

Penelope and the Suitors

Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus next heads for his own house. There, he sees the Suitors eating his food, drinking his wine, and behaving as if his palace already belongs to them. The abuse of hospitality is now clear before his eyes.

Antinous, one of the most arrogant Suitors, treats the disguised Odysseus with special cruelty. He insults him and hurls a footstool at him (Odyssey 17.462–465). Eurymachus, another leading Suitor, is smoother in speech but no less guilty in the destruction of Odysseus’ household; he too throws a footstool at the beggar (18.394–398).

Penelope appears and, prompted by Athena, shows herself to the Suitors and draws gifts from them (Odyssey 18.158–303). Later, in the hall at night, Odysseus, still disguised, speaks with his unsuspecting wife and gives her false but comforting news of her missing husband, swearing that he will return before the month is out (Odyssey 19.100–360).

Melantho, Melanthius and the Disloyal Servants

Not everyone in the palace remains loyal to Odysseus and Penelope. Melantho, a maidservant raised by Penelope and the sister of Melanthius, insults Odysseus while he is disguised as a beggar and sleeps with the Suitor Eurymachus (Odyssey 18.321–336, 19.65–69). Her behavior shows how deeply the household has been corrupted during the king’s absence.

Melanthius, the goatherd and brother of Melantho, also sides with the Suitors. He insults and kicks Odysseus and later tries to bring weapons to the Suitors during the battle (Odyssey 17.212–260, 22.135–200). Together, Melantho and Melanthius stand opposite loyal servants such as Eumaeus, Eurycleia, and Philoetius.

Odysseus and Eurycleia

Growing a fondness for this stranger, Penelope calls Eurycleia – Odysseus’ one-time wet-nurse – and asks her to wash the beggar’s feet. While doing this, Eurycleia notices the scar on his leg and realizes the identity of the stranger. She wants to tell Penelope, but Odysseus seizes her by the throat and makes her swear silence, while Athena turns Penelope’s attention away (Odyssey 19.386–507).

The Contest of the Bow

After talking with the beggar, Penelope decides to set the contest herself and announces that she will marry the Suitor able to string her husband’s bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes (Odyssey 19.570–587, 21.1–79). None of the Suitors manage even to string the bow.

Odysseus, still in disguise, asks to try. With help from Eumaeus and Philoetius, who bar the doors of the hall and the courtyard, and from Telemachus, he strings the bow with ease and shoots the arrow through the axes. The contest reveals what the Suitors cannot yet understand: the true master of the house has returned (Odyssey 21.80–434).

Afterward, Odysseus reveals himself. Helped by Telemachus, Athena, Eumaeus, and Philoetius, he slays the Suitors. Antinous is the first to die, struck by an arrow in the throat as he lifts a golden cup to drink (Odyssey 22.1–21). Eurymachus dies next, and the fighting ends with the death of every Suitor. The disloyal servants are also punished (Odyssey 22.1–477).

How Many Suitors Did Odysseus Kill?

Odysseus killed all 108 Suitors, and none of them escaped the hall. Telemachus gives the count himself earlier in the poem: 108 noblemen drawn from Ithaca and the surrounding islands, attended by six serving-men, the herald Medon, the minstrel and two carvers (Odyssey 16.245–253). Apollodorus gives the same figures and names (Epitome 7.26–30).

• The Suitors came from Dulichium (52), Same (24), Zacynthus (20), and Ithaca itself (12), which totals 108
• The bard Phemius and the herald Medon were spared, because they had served the Suitors under compulsion (Odyssey 22.330–380)
• Twelve disloyal maidservants were hanged, and the goatherd Melanthius was mutilated and strung up, after the battle (Odyssey 22.421–477)

The Reunion of Odysseus and Penelope

Eurycleia tells Penelope of the outcome of the contest, joyously announcing that the stranger had been none other than Odysseus all this time! Penelope does not believe her and holds back even after coming down and seeing him bathed and clothed in royal attire, in the likeness of an immortal, made so by Athena. Understandably cautious, Penelope tells Eurycleia to move the marriage-bed out of the bedchamber. Odysseus replies angrily that such a thing is impossible, as he had built the bed himself around the trunk of a living olive tree and no man could move it without cutting the tree. Penelope needs no further proof: she runs in tears to her husband’s embrace. Athena holds back the dawn for a long while, so that the two spouses can enjoy a lengthened night of love and of telling each other their stories (Odyssey 23.1–372).

Odysseus’ Role and Symbolism

Cunning and Intelligence

Odysseus is famous for cunning intelligence. He wins not because he is the strongest Greek hero, but because he can plan, speak, deceive, wait, and adapt. The Trojan Horse, the trick of Nobody, and his disguise in Ithaca all show this side of his character. Athena herself says that he is the best of mortals in counsel and speech (Odyssey 13.296–299).

Odysseus’ Personality and Character

Odysseus is defined by practical cunning combined with extraordinary patience and self-control. Homer’s standing epithets call him “of many wiles” and “much-enduring,” and those two traits explain nearly everything he does.

• Eloquent: Antenor recalls that no mortal could rival him once he began to speak (Iliad 3.221–224)
• Self-controlled: he endures insults in his own hall as a beggar rather than strike too early; Homer compares his heart to a dog growling over her pups (Odyssey 20.5–24)
• Curious and reckless: he insists on seeing the Cyclops and on hearing the Sirens, at heavy cost
• Deceitful by habit: he lies to Eumaeus, to Penelope, and even to Athena, who is amused rather than offended (Odyssey 13.287–310)

Was Odysseus Good or Bad?

Odysseus is deliberately written as both, and ancient audiences were already divided about him. The Greeks admired him as the cleverest of heroes; the Romans, who claimed Trojan ancestry, treated him as a liar and a war criminal.

• In his favour: loyalty to Penelope and Ithaca, efforts to protect his crew, and refusal of immortality for the sake of home
• Against him: the killing of Palamedes, the death of Astyanax, and the hanging of the maidservants after the slaughter (Odyssey 22.421–473)
• Sophocles (Philoctetes) and Euripides (Hecuba, Trojan Women) present him as a darker figure than Homer does, and Virgil does so even more

Endurance and Homecoming

Odysseus is also a hero of endurance. His story is not only about victory in war, but about the painful return home after war. He loses ships, men, time, and comfort, but he continues to desire Ithaca.

The Abuse of Hospitality

Many of Odysseus’ adventures test the sacred rule of hospitality. Polyphemus kills and eats his guests. The Laestrygonians destroy strangers instead of welcoming them. The Suitors live in Odysseus’ house but abuse his goods and family. Against them stand good hosts such as Eumaeus and the Phaeacians.

The Danger of Pride

Odysseus is wise, but he is not perfect. After escaping Polyphemus he shouts his name across the water, despite the pleas of his men, allowing the Cyclops to call on Poseidon (Odyssey 9.473–505). This mistake brings years of suffering. The Odyssey therefore presents Odysseus as brilliant and flawed at the same time.

Human Life Over Immortality

Calypso offers Odysseus immortality on Ogygia, but he refuses it. He tells Calypso that he knows Penelope is less beautiful than she is, yet he wishes every day to go home (Odyssey 5.215–220). He chooses Penelope, Ithaca, age, and mortal life over endless youth away from home.

The Death of Odysseus

Who Killed Odysseus and How Did He Die?

Odysseus was killed by Telegonus, his own son by the sorceress Circe, who wounded him with a spear tipped with the spine of a sting-ray without knowing who he was (Apollodorus, Epitome 7.36). The death fulfils the prophecy of Teiresias that death would come to Odysseus “out of the sea” (Odyssey 11.134–136).

• It happens years after the Odyssey ends, on Ithaca, and neither man recognises the other
• Homer never narrates it: the story comes from the lost epic “Telegony” and from later summaries such as Apollodorus’ Epitome (7.34–37)
• Alternative traditions exist in which he dies in old age in Aetolia, after being exiled by Neoptolemus’ judgment (Epitome 7.40)

What Happened to Odysseus After the Odyssey?

The Odyssey ends with Odysseus restored to Ithaca, but the tradition continues past its final page. Teiresias had ordered him to make one more journey inland, carrying an oar until he met people who did not know the sea (Odyssey 11.119–131).

• He was to plant the oar there and sacrifice a ram, a bull and a boar to Poseidon, finally making peace with the god who had hunted him
• Some accounts have him leave Ithaca again, reach Thesprotia, and marry its queen Callidice (Epitome 7.34–35)
• Others, less kindly, say the kinsfolk of the dead Suitors accused him and Neoptolemus condemned him to exile (Epitome 7.40)

Not many things are known about Odysseus’ later years; or, to be more precise, too many contradictory stories are told by different authors. Apollodorus reports that some say Penelope was seduced by Antinous and sent back by Odysseus to her father Icarius, and that on the way she bore Pan to Hermes at Mantinea; others say Odysseus killed her because of Amphinomus (Epitome 7.38–39). In Apollodorus’ summary of the Thesprotian tradition, Odysseus journeyed on foot through Epirus, sacrificed to Poseidon as Teiresias had ordered, and married Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians, with whom he had a son, Polypoetes; when Callidice died, he handed the kingdom to his son and returned to Ithaca, where he found Poliporthes, a son Penelope had borne him (Epitome 7.34–35).

The most famous story of Odysseus’ death, however, concerns Telegonus, the son he fathered with Circe while on Aeaea. When Telegonus learned from Circe that he was a son of Odysseus, he sailed in search of his father. Landing on Ithaca, he drove off some of the cattle, and when Odysseus came out to defend them, Telegonus wounded him with the spear he was holding, which was barbed with the spine of a sting-ray, and Odysseus died of the wound. When Telegonus recognized his father he lamented bitterly and carried the body, together with Penelope, to Circe (Epitome 7.36–37). According to Apollodorus, Telegonus married Penelope there and Circe sent the two of them to the Isles of the Blessed; in the ancient summary of the lost “Telegony,” Telegonus brought Telemachus as well, Circe made all of them immortal, Telegonus married Penelope, and Telemachus married Circe.

Odysseus’ Children

Odysseus had one son by Penelope, Telemachus, and this is the only child Homer recognises (Odyssey 16.117–120). Later sources add several more, so the lists disagree.

• Telemachus, son of Penelope, born just before the Trojan War and twenty years old at his father’s return
• Telegonus, son of Circe, who unknowingly kills his father years later
• Agrius, Latinus and, again, Telegonus, named by Hesiod as sons of Circe, and Nausithous and Nausinous, named by Hesiod as sons of Calypso (Theogony 1011–1018)
• Poliporthes, a second son of Penelope after his return, and Polypoetes, son of the Thesprotian queen Callidice (Epitome 7.34–35)

Odysseus Sources

The main sources on Odysseus’ life and deeds are Homer’s two epics: the “Iliad” (2.631–637, 3.191–224, 9, 10), which covers his part in the Trojan War, and especially the “Odyssey” (1.68–79, 2.171–176, 4.271–289, 5, 6–8, 9–12, 13–24, with the family passages 11.84–86, 15.340–370, 16.117–120 and 19.386–466), which focuses on his journey back home. Hesiod’s Theogony (1011–1018) names his sons by Circe and Calypso, and the Hesiodic “Catalogue of Women” (fragment on the suitors of Helen) his wooing without gifts.

Apollodorus’ Library (1.9.16, 3.10.6–9, 3.13.8) and Epitome (3.6–8, 5.9–23, 7.26–40) supply the Oath of Tyndareus, the feigned madness and the death of Palamedes, Scyros, the Wooden Horse, and the later traditions about Callidice, Telegonus and Penelope; the Epitome also summarizes the Odyssey. Hyginus’ Fabulae (95, 96) tells the feigned madness and the discovery of Achilles. Pausanias (3.12.2) has the foot-race for Penelope and (10.25.9) the painting of Astyanax’ death at Delphi. Among the tragedians, Sophocles’ “Philoctetes” (417) and “Ajax” (189–190) allude to the Sisyphus rumor, and Euripides’ “The Trojan Women” (719–725) shows Odysseus deciding the fate of Astyanax. The ancient summaries of the lost epics “Sack of Ilion,” “Little Iliad” and “Telegony” supply Astyanax’ killer and the fate of Odysseus’ family, and Dictys of Crete (book 2) the well version of Palamedes’ death. Latin poets give the Roman view: Virgil’s Aeneid (2.43–44, 2.90, 2.164, 2.234–267) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (11.313–315, 13.31–32, 13.162–170, 13.415–417).

See Also: Laertes, Anticlea, Trojan War, Trojan Horse, Helen, Tyndareus, Priam, Achilles, Thetis, Palamedes, Penelope, Telemachus, Polyphemus, Poseidon, Aeolus, Laestrygonians, Circe, Eurylochus, Hermes, Teiresias, Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, Helios, Zeus, Calypso, Ogygia, Phaeacians, Eumaeus, Antinous, Melantho, Melanthius, Philoetius, Eurycleia, Telegonus